Triple assault starts down on the farm...

A small spelling farm near Mittagong in the NSW Southern Highlands will have a special interest in the $2.5 million Doncaster Handicap at Randwick on Saturday.

Rheinwood Farm will boast three runners in the Randwick classic, headed by full-brothers Padfoot Charlie and Final Fantasy, while Dottoressa completes the trio born and raised on the property.

Owner-breeder, Malcolm Chung, uses Rheinwood Farm to stable his broodmare Fantastique, dam of the Bruce Cross trained full-brothers by Chimes Square. The propert's owner, Ray Willis, bred and part-owns Dottoressa, prepared by Steve Englebrecht at Warwick Farm.

"I'm pretty excited," Chung said last night of his dual Doncaster attack. "Even to get just one into the Doncaster is pretty exciting but to get two, it's hard to describe. I'm very proud. No-one knows how often, if at all, that two full-brothers have lined up in a Group 1 race like the Doncaster."

Chung stepped into racing in the late 1980's joining a syndicate of owners which raced 10 horses, one of which was Fantastique. The fun hasn't stopped since.

"She had a handful of starts and came third twice," Chung said.

"She kept going sore in the leg. When they eventually x-rayed it they found a hole in her sesamoid. When the syndicate finished I bought her back at auction and have bred from her since."
Chung chose the quietly spoken Cross to prepare his star due on the recommendation of his brother-in-law and former jockey Warren Munro.

"Warren and Bruce used to hang around together when they were kids," Chung said. "When I found out Bruce was training I thought I'd give him a couple of horses and he's done the job.
"When you think he has only four or five (horses) in work and to have two in a Doncaster, it's a marvellous achievement."

Aside from Padfoot Charlie and Final Fantasy, Fantastique has produced two fillies by Integra and Sri Pekan and has a yearling colt in the paddock by Strategic.

"They haven't done much to date," Chung said. "It (breeding) is a long process, but very enjoyable, especially when they win. But it's all a matter of luck.

I'll keep Fantastique, then when she passes away I'll probably try to find another one. That'll do me, just one. I don't want to get too big, it becomes too expensive a hobby."

Now 50 and semi-retired, Chung admits the nerves will be on edge when Padfoot Charlie, fourth in last year's AJC Australian Derby and Final Fantasy, which won the Group 2 Villiers Stakes over the Randwick 1,600 in 1999 and is the older of the pair, head into the barriers to race for a slice of $2.5 million in prizemoney.

"The quinella would go real well," Chung said. "Of course, a lot of sentiment is going to come into it. But I honestly do think they will run well.

"It's going to be a big day for the farm. I might throw her (Dottoressa) into my trifecta."